


Fatal Attraction

by TheArchaeologist



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst, Blood, Canon-Typical Violence, Diego Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Diego Hargreeves-centric, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Hurt No Comfort, Number Five | The Boy Dies, Protective Diego Hargreeves, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:08:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27622528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheArchaeologist/pseuds/TheArchaeologist
Summary: Five’s fight with Lila ends a little differently, much to the horror of his family.
Relationships: Diego Hargreeves/Lila Pitts
Comments: 44
Kudos: 181





	Fatal Attraction

Diego’s having one of _those_ weeks.

Before, off in his own time, where he had a piss-poor job and a piss-poor room, but they were also _his_ so fuck whatever anyone had to say about them, Diego referred to them as _‘Why the Hell Not?’_ weeks, because that’s exactly what they were.

Everything bad that was going to happen, did, be it broken bones and bloody scars, boxing matches that ended with him on a stretcher and nursing concussions well into the next day, or wanna-be gangsters who took offence at his vigilante antics and thought it a great idea to dish out their own form of justice. 

Perhaps it was the universe getting its own back on him, after a childhood inflicting unnecessary pain on petty thieves and shoplifters who deserved a slap on the wrist rather than a blade in the neck, or just the general Hargreeves cursed luck which enjoyed lingering in the shadows of all their lives, but either way, these weeks sucked and whenever they decided to creep up on him, Diego would slink off into the depths of the gym and get his head down, mopping the floors until they shined.

That was before, though. Before the mayhem, before _Five._

Fucking Five. It was only natural that his smartass brother couldn’t have just fucked off like the rest of them, carving out a disjointed path into normal society and flinging himself in at full force. That would be too easy, too sane, too much like common sense for their sibling who lived on nothing but logic. 

No, instead of simply running away at thirteen and joining the circus like every other delinquent kid, he barrels headfirst into the end of the world, somehow manages to antagonise of a whole society of people despite being the last human left alive, and then has the gall to drag everyone else into it.

The shitstorm he causes upon arrival is impressive.

Afterwards, however, Diego’s _‘Why the Hell Not?’_ weeks change, and not for the better.

People get stabbed, people get killed, one brother gets tortured, sober, and admits to serving in the army, while another dictates a misguided decision while trying to protect them all. One sister loses her voice as the other learns to gain hers, and, standing in the middle, with a patronising smirk and dressed in knee-high shorts, is Five.

Their scramble back in time is just the icing on the cake, really.

Diego should have known it would get no better from there, that his life would spiral into a mess of historic assassinations, white walls, and medication that makes his head float among the heavens.

Then Five turns up again.

Déjà vu is a cruel sense of hindsight.

Already, he’s taken a blade to the stomach, been drugged, humiliated, and forced to deal with his Father’s piercing silver tongue, because Reginald Hargreeves is a bastard no matter the decade, has felt loved, betrayed, and overall pretty damn confused, and now, to top it all off, is nursing a bruised leg thanks to a tractor flung at him by his girlfriend.

Ex-girlfriend?

The details on that are a little muddy. Lila wasn’t in the mood to be asked, last time he saw her, standing side-by-side with her adopted Mother, who just so happens to be his brother’s old boss and Hargreeve-public-enemy number one.

“But she’s not our biological sister…Right?”

Really fucking muddy.

Luther ignores him, turning his attention to the others. “Okay, so if she can mirror our powers, that means anything we throw at her, she can match, right?”

“Yeah, but she can only mirror one of our powers at a time.” Klaus chimes in, raising an eyebrow as if he’s cracked a code.

Allison glances at him. “You sure about that?”

From the barn, there’s a familiar yell, which quickly cuts off with a pained yelp, and the sound of something heavy hitting the floor.

“Fuck.” Diego breathes, and it takes no more than that to send all of them running, Luther and Allison pulling ahead while Klaus and Vanya, never the sprinters of the group, lag behind, hindered by the snow and their less than ideal shoes for this kind of weather.

Somewhere along the line, Lila gained a more personal vendetta against Five. Diego doesn’t have clue when, he hasn’t seen the two together since they tried to infiltrate the Majestic Twelve meeting, but knowing his brother, Five found a way.

His busted leg drags him down, leaving him scrambling in the footsteps of siblings one and three, twinging as the muscles pull, aching when his ankle rolls a bit in the snow. Diego finds himself breathing hard in the effort to try and match their pace, the cold chilling the inside of his throat, making it raw.

He could ask Five how he got on the wrong side of Lila, however it’s more than likely his answer is going to be a condescending glance and the exclamation, “Time travel!”

That has rapidly become his oldest-youngest brother’s manta, whenever things go tits-up.

Where did he go? Time travel.

Why are people after him? Time travel.

What’s his issue? Time travel.

Five should just follow Klaus’ example and get it tattooed across his forehead, at least it would save his voice.

They go whirling around the corner of the barn, and from within there’s a small, almost feeble little croak.

“Shit, shit, shit.” Luther hisses, running like a damn snowplough through the sprays of freshly frozen white. Number One gets to the open door first, barrelling through only to instantly pull short, making Allison, and in turn Diego, yelp as they skid to avoid colliding into his back.

Diego ends up bracing against Allison’s shoulders, his chest heaving.

“What? What’s wrong?” Behind him, he hears Klaus call out to Vanya.

“Oh God…” Allison whispers.

With an irritated exhale between his teeth, Diego shoves her out the way, following their gaze.

Lila stands in the centre of the barn, a tall, lone figure highlighted by the glow of the sky streaming in through the broken windows. Hay bales lay scattered around her, their straw disturbed, and tossed to one side is a frying pan, of all things, the edge of it bloodied and dented.

Her shoulders rising and falling in exertion, Lila slowly blinks, turning towards their pathetic group, her mouth pulled tight into a thin line.

Sprawled at her feet, a true mess of gangly limbs he’s had no chance to grow into yet, hair flopped to one side, is a motionless, broken body. 

Diego’s heart drops into his chest, and then divebombs straight through his stomach before plummeting to his feet.

“Five?” Luther ask, his voice strangely loud in the hush only otherwise broken by their panted breathing. 

Footsteps crunch in the snow.

There is no response, not from the person who matters, and stiffly Lila goes from watching them all, to watching _him._

Diego is moving before has the chance to think, marching across the space between them, his boots banging on the wooden floor. For a second, he looms over his brother, his mouth dry, his hands fisted tight enough for his nails to indent his palms, before falling harshly to his knees, ignoring the flare of pain that strikes along his leg. Lila, in his peripheral vision, inches away, her stance notably defensive, notably hunched. 

He doesn’t care.

He doesn’t fucking care.

Because he’s leaning forward to tap against cheeks sticky with blood and rapidly cooling sweat. Because there’s a bruise as big as a bus smothering a neck attached to a body which is suddenly the smallest thing in the entire fucking world. Because there is a gaze stuck on the ceiling, a mouth struck silent, and hands which remain lax even as Diego snatches up a wrist and presses his fingers right where the pulse should be.

He finds jack-shit.

“F-Fi-” He’s choking, he must surely be choking. “Fi-Five, C’mon. C-Co-Com-”

There’s a staggered gasp, a hitch in a voice, a suppressed sob.

Someone collapses beside him, Klaus, he thinks, cradling Five’s head and feeling down his neck with long, shaky fingers like this is a fucking spinal injury, like this is something that just requires a neck brace and jaunty gallivant off to the nearest hospital. 

Diego’s seen a lost cause before. 

He was there for Ben.

He was there for _Patch._

The edges of his vision begin to cloud, heavy with the weight of tears or fury or whatever else is currently coursing through his veins like the stuff Klaus used to inject. His hands clench against his will, and then slam with full force against the floorboards, making them rattle, making Klaus flinch, the sound reverberating in the dead air around them.

He hears his sisters as they reach out and cling to one another, gulping down disbelieving whispers of grief, their faces wet, their mouths moving without words.

He hears Luther stumble backwards until he hits the wall, the wood creaking as he props his entire hulking body against it.

He hears Klaus begin to mutter jumbled nonsense to himself, random things about how it isn’t fair, how there’s a light he can’t distract from, not now, not this time, it wouldn’t be right.

The whimper, the last thing he’ll ever hear from Five, echoes inside his skull.

Through the blur, Diego slowly, his jaw shaking, turns his gaze up to Lila. 

She’s staring down at them, fighting to keep her expression unreadable, an old, defeated ghost shining through her eyes. There’s a vulnerability there, one he both wants to banish and protect, because she was a tool like him, she was also diminished to the role of a pawn in a fucked game that became their lives. She’s cheeky, and funny, and won’t put up with his bullshit, and is equally as guarded against the big, cruel world around them.

He loves her.

He _loves_ her.

Diego stares up at Lila.

“I’ll kill you.” He promises. “There’s not coming back from this. The next time I see you, I kill you.”

“Diego-” She tries.

He surges to his feet, bellowing, _“Go!”_

She does, in a flash of blue he will never see again, and with that Diego’s strength vanishes, and he crumples to the floor like sodden paper, his head dropping to his chest as he weeps.

**Author's Note:**

> Sometimes you just have to post less than 2,000 words of pure angst ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> I pretty much wrote and edited this in two hours and my dyslexic butt is tired, so please excuse any spelling/grammar mistakes, I'll fix them tomorrow
> 
> [Tumblr](https://ancientstone.tumblr.com/)


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